Overall Rating Awesome: 42.42% Worth A Look: 21.21% Average: 3.03% Pretty Bad: 30.3% Total Crap: 3.03% 1 review, 27 user ratings

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Open Your Eyes

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by iF Magazine

"Everything is out of whack."

One should be skeptical of a movie titled OPEN YOUR EYES when the main plot point concerns dreams. Doesn’t the ending seem pretty obvious? Fortunately, this Spanish film directed by Alejandro Amenabar isn’t that predictable. Just convoluted. Imagine KAFKA by way of David Lynch with a bit of Bunuel. Then throw in such movies as MASK, SECONDS and MAN WITHOUT A FACE and you get an idea.

Cesar (Eduardo Noreiga), a once handsome young man now locked up in a psychiatric hospital and wearing a mask tells a nightmarish tale to his psychiatrist. It all starts one morning when he is picked up by a jealous ex-lover who in a rage drives her car off the road killing herself and leaving him barely alive with a totally wrecked, disfigured face.

From this moment on he enters into an inescapable alienated world where dreams and reality have become totally ambiguous.

Everything is out of whack. The dead woman he fears and hates (Najwa Nimri) suddenly appears and becomes the woman he currently trusts and loves while the other (Penelope Cruz) becomes the opposite (?!). He is thrown back and forth in time where one minute his face is fine and the next it has morphed back to it’s wrecked state. Essentially, he has entered into the world of his mind and begins to believe his own psyche is conducting a conspiracy to kill him or at least drive him mad. The film plays this cat and mouse game until logic is thrown out and it becomes and all out fantasy.

In other words OPEN YOUR EYES is about the fears and desires we create for ourselves through reality and dreams. In Cesar’s case -- since he is an attractive guy -- the worst thing that could happen to him would be for him to lose his good looks. So he seems to wish his own demise. Put simply the films very real question concerning Cesar ends up being -- is he losing face or just making them?

The film is visually well thought out with dark, mysterious, Freudian-type shadows looming about that are apropos to its spirit as well as being unquestionably suitable to shocks. Unfortunately, its playful narrative structure ultimately becomes hard to follow. It’s as if the filmmakers want to layer the confusions until we feel so lost ourselves that we empathize with the main character; which actually may be the point but it feels forced.

If you’re interested in a simpler telling of the story it should be known that Tom Cruise is considering a remake. Which gives you at least one reason to go out and see this movie before Hollywood gets their hands on it. ---Matt Langdon - iF Magazine (http://ifmagazine.ifctv.com)

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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1208&reviewer=119
originally posted: 09/20/99 03:14:23

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User Comments

4/21/07 fools♫gold I despised Vanilla Sky's corniness and dialogue-exclusion after witnessing this. 5 stars

2/10/07 Double M Nightmarish, Darker than VS. VS has better characters, romantic line, acting and is DEEPER. 4 stars

11/11/06 chris. what i hated about VS was not in this movie, but cruise was better 5 stars

11/05/06 Annabelle Earthier characters than in V Sky, should watch both films. 4 stars

7/26/04 john bale With its nightmare logic this whacky thriller owes much to Walt Disney 4 stars

6/03/04 Daveman Everything apart from the final act is definitly more believable than Vanilla Sky at least. 3 stars

6/30/03 just_me Amazing...This one has great music for the atmosphere. Don't watch vanilla sky...See this 5 stars

10/07/02 TheOthersFan Perhaps not as integrated as Amenabar's later work "The Others", but intriguing nonetheless 4 stars

9/29/02 james superb! 5 stars

5/25/02 darkjosh@hotmail.com One of the best sci-fi films I've ever seen, deepens with each viewing. Exhilarating. 5 stars

5/18/02 Ionicera much better than Vanilla Sky, fun to watch 4 stars

3/06/02 Veronica Foxx aka The Raven-Haired Temptress "Open Your Eyes"? No thanks, I'd rather close 'em if this is showing. Cruz makes wretch. 2 stars

2/18/02 Melanie302 This movie is one that leaves you mad you wasted the money to see it! 2 stars

1/17/02 Juju Awesome 5 stars

12/09/01 Marly Obvious? not at all!!! Overdone ending- maybe- but what a ride!!! 5 stars

11/30/01 DRS What the shir are you people on this is an incredible movie 5 stars

10/18/01 cadroy a convoluted cube of german existensialism!see it! 5 stars

3/30/01 Paul Starts well, then overdoes it 2 stars

3/30/01 Alex Ianculescu Amazing and incredible--one of the best movies out there 5 stars

2/28/01 John Singleton The best picture in 90s 5 stars

2/25/01 Field Hockey Pro Mind Bending Stuff...Absolutely Incredible 5 stars

11/26/00 Alvaro This movie rules ... all those who say it's obvious are those who said the Sixth Sense was 5 stars

10/28/99 ed awesome 5 stars

10/26/99 Karahde Khan It starts OK, then it gets worse. Too obvious plot holes. A great missed opportunity. 2 stars

4/26/99 Mr Showbiz Nerve racking, inventive, disconcerting. 4 stars

4/25/99 agustin a good spanish movie with twists, Kate Winslet is not in it 4 stars

12/12/98 LEONARDO D'CAPRIO BURN IN HELL IT SUCKS BEACAUSE KATE WINSLETT IS A FAT ELEPHANTISIS SUCKING LEECH 1 stars

IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS FILM, RATE IT!
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USA 16-Apr-1999 (R) UK N/A Australia N/A

Directed by Alejandro Amanabar Written by N/A Cast N/A

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